Canonical Classics ← 第七十二回
第七十二回
pándòngqíngběn
zhuógòuquánjièwàngxíng

In Spiderweb Cave the Seven Passions Cloud the Root · At Filth-Cleansing Spring Eight Rules Forgets Himself

搭在衣架上
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

搭在衣架上 Clothes On The Rack

xiējiànshuǐyòuqīngyòu便biànyàotuōlezàijiàshàngxiàbèixíngzhěkànjiànxiējiànshuǐyòuqīngyòu便biànyàotuōlezàijiàshàngxiàbèixíngzhěkànjiàn

tuìfàngniǔkòuérjiěkāiluódàijiétuìfàngniǔkòuérjiěkāiluódàijié
xiōngbáiyínhúnxuěxiōngbáiyínhúnxuě

逐句解 Line by line

xiējiànshuǐyòuqīngyòu便biànyàotuōlezàijiàshàngxià xiējiànshuǐyòuqīngyòu便biànyàotuōlezàijiàshàngxià

The women, seeing the water so clear and so warm, wanted at once to bathe. They stripped off their clothes together, hung them on the rack, and went down into it all together.

一齊 twice in one sentence — together, in one movement. The clothes go onto the rack Pilgrim is already sitting on, and the book does not point this out.

bèixíngzhěkànjiàn bèixíngzhěkànjiàn

And Pilgrim saw:

makes it passive — it was seen by Pilgrim. Five characters, and the grammar quietly puts him in the position of somebody who could not help it.

tuìfàngniǔkòuérjiěkāiluódàijié tuìfàngniǔkòuérjiěkāiluódàijié

Buttons slipped loose, silk sashes untied.

is tuì, to slip a thing off. is jiě, to untie. The couplet opens the way the kickball poem did — with the hands, doing something small.

xiōngbáiyínhúnxuě xiōngbáiyínhúnxuě

Soft breasts white as silver; jade bodies all over like snow.

means wholly, all through. Both halves compare skin to a mineral — silver, then snow — which is the standard vocabulary and keeps the description at a distance from any actual body.


總評 Commentary

The clothes come off and go onto the rack, and Pilgrim is sitting on the rack. He planned that two passages ago and the book lets you work it out.

The grammar of the second line is worth a moment. It does not say Pilgrim looked; it says the sight was seen by him — a passive construction that puts him in the position of somebody who happened to be there. He is a fly on a clothes rack he chose deliberately, and the sentence is being tactful on his behalf.